Scattered Light by Jim Campbell was part of the first Northern Spark in 2011 along the Mississippi River in St. Paul. The overnight arts festival has received $11,000 from the city of St. Paul’s Dec. 2018 Cultural STAR grants for a Northern Spark event in the historic Rondo neighborhood.

The St. Paul City Council recently approved $1 million in Cultural STAR grants to 33 organizations, while tweaking eligibility and reimbursement requirements for the twice-annual awards.

The rule changes are intended to help small and mid-sized arts and nonprofit groups have a better shot at scoring or even applying for funding. Funding can range from $5,000 grants to $100,000 or more.

Among the changes, arts groups and nonprofits can receive 80 percent of their grant award upfront after providing a work plan.

For smaller organizations, “it’s hard to front the money and wait eight or more weeks for reimbursement,” said St. Paul City Council President Amy Brendmoen on Tuesday.

Since the mid-1990s, the city has imposed a citywide sales tax of one-half of one percent, with 10 percent of those funds supporting cultural programs.

The competitive grants can fund physical improvements to facilities, new equipment and materials, arts activities or organizational development. All grants require at least a one-to-one funding match from ticket revenue, sponsorships or other sources.

The city’s Cultural Star board received more than $2 million in funding requests, and made $635,000 in recommendations. The mayor signed off on all of them, while adding $370,000 for collections materials at the St. Paul Public Library system.

The money added back to support the libraries was expected and budgeted.

“This is a common annual practice in order to support the libraries,” said Nora Riemenschneider, the city’s Cultural STAR program coordinator.

While approving the awards on Dec. 12, the city council also approved the following changes to the requirements.

St. Paul-based nonprofit arts and cultural organizations located outside of the city’s downtown Cultural District may now apply twice per grant round.

They may receive funding up to two times per calendar year – once for projects taking place outside of the Cultural District and once for projects taking place within the Cultural District.

For awards geared to special projects and organizational development, the rules formerly required that the grants be used to reimburse arts and nonprofit organizations once their expenses are tallied.

Under the new rules, 80 percent of the funds can be issued to an organization upfront, provided they’re able to provide a detailed budget and work plan.

Similar rule changes are intended to speed up reimbursements for capital projects, or physical facilities improvements, once the city’s office of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity finds that the project has met compliance requirements.

The new rules also clarify eligible start dates. Under the old rules, projects that were completed by the time the city had made its determination would not have been eligible to apply for funds.

Under the new rules, projects applying for funding in Round 1 next February must not start earlier than July 1, 2019, and must end by June 30, 2020.

Projects applying for funding in Round 2 must not start earlier than Jan. 1, 2020 and must end by Dec. 31, 2020.

The major grants announced this month included $100,000 for the St. Paul-Changsha China Friendship Garden in Phalen Park, $50,000 for the Minnesota Museum of American Art’s “History is Not Here: Art and Arab America Exhibition,” and $42,000 for the Twin Cities Jazz Festival.

The Vietnamese Community of Minnesota received $20,000 toward the Vietnamese Tet Festival, the St. Paul Winter Carnival received $15,000 toward kid-friendly events, and Northern Lights received $11,000 toward a Northern Spark celebration in St. Paul’s historic Rondo community.

The next round of Cultural Star applications opens Jan. 11 and closes Feb. 22. Through Feb. 4, the city will host seven informational sessions — one in each political ward. A full schedule is online at stpaul.gov/culturalstar.

Frederick Melo was once sued by a reader for $2 million but kept on writing. He came to the Pioneer Press in 2005 and brings a testy East Coast attitude to St. Paul beat reporting. He spent nearly six years covering crime in the Dakota County courts before switching focus to the St. Paul mayor's office, city council, and all things neighborhood-related, from the city's churches to its parks and light rail. A resident of Hamline-Midway, he is married to a Frogtown woman. He Tweets with manic intensity at @FrederickMelo.

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